Remember the chaos during this year’s AO when Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina were forced to abandon Court 6 mid-match because of the wild noise from the notorious ‘party court’? Two months later, a similar drama has now unfolded, as Novak Djokovic and Sebastian Korda’s much-anticipated QF clash at the Miami Open hit an unexpected pause. 

Following the implementation of a rule designed to curb excessively late marathon matches, the Miami Open organizers were forced to make a difficult decision: postponing the highly anticipated quarterfinal between Novak Djokovic and Sebastian Korda. The culprit?

Tuesday’s persistent rain, which swallowed nearly four hours of play and created a logjam in Wednesday’s schedule at Hard Rock Stadium. This backlog necessitated moving the Arthur Fils vs. Alexander Zverev match to Wednesday afternoon, making the prospect of the Djokovic-Korda clash stretching into the early hours of Thursday morning.

Allowing the Djokovic-Korda match to continue risked the players not getting to bed until the very early hours of Thursday morning, potentially as late as 5 a.m., a situation deemed unacceptable under the tournament’s new rules aimed at protecting player welfare and ensuring reasonable rest periods. What’s latest?

Just a couple of hours ago, tennis circles buzzed as Ben Rothenberg, host of the “No Challenges Remaining” podcast, took to Twitter and shared, “Jim Courier reporting on Tennis Channel that Djokovic and Korda have departed the Miami Open venue due to the late hour, meaning their match won’t be played.”

 “In accordance with ATP rules that do not allow for a match to go on court after 11 p.m., the match between Novak Djokovic and Sebastian Korda has been postponed until tomorrow and will be the third match from 1 p.m,” Andrew Krasny, a tennis host and producer, announced to a crowd of 13,000, who were clearly displeased. 

The crowd erupted into howls and whistles, completely drowning out the latter half of the announcement, their attention quickly hijacked by a flashing “QR code” on the giant screens, offering $10 tickets for Thursday’s day session, a deal too tempting to ignore. And despite organizers sticking to a 1 p.m. local time start, hoping to squeeze in 3 matches in under 6 hours, tennis, as always, had its own script!

While Iga Swiatek quickly bowed out to surprise package Alexandra Eala, the Fils-Zverev battle went the distance in three grueling sets. Then, Grigor Dimitrov and Francisco Cerundolo delivered another nail-biter that stretched to a third-set tie-break end. By the time Jessica Pegula and Emma Raducanu took the center court, it was already 9 p.m., nearly 2 hours behind schedule, and their match wrapped up close to midnight.

However, the unexpected delay in the match might just work in Novak’s favor, giving him valuable extra time to sharpen his rhythm and hit the ground, running after his commanding win over Lorenzo Musetti.

“I started a bit slow,” Novak Djokovic after beating the Italian at R16

Fresh off his record-breaking 411th ‘ATP Masters 1000’ victory, the 24-time GS winner faced a shaky start against Lorenzo Musetti, falling behind 0-2 early in the opening set. However, as champions do, the Serbian swiftly recalibrated, holding serve to ignite a 6-game streak that saw him clinch the first set in just 40 minutes.

The 2nd set mirrored the first, with Djokovic dominating to seal the win in 1 hour and 23 minutes. Among the captivated crowd were tennis legends, Serena Williams and Juan Martín del Potro. After the match, Novak acknowledged that he started slowly but felt pleased with his strong turnaround.

“He started the match very well, I started a bit slow. I knew that if I gave him time, he would go for his shots, as he has a lot of talent. It was tough, especially in the first seven or eight games. Then there was a momentum shift, and I tried to take advantage of it. I served well, and that makes your life easier on the court, you get easy shots. Overall, it was a great match,” he added later after the match.

Up next for Novak is a tricky challenge, Sebastian Korda, the 25th seed, who pushed Novak to the brink the last time they met, losing only in a tight 3rd set at Adelaide 2023. Can the American cause a major upset this time, or will the Serbian rise to the occasion and deliver as the favorite once again? Who’s your pick?